READIN

Friday, January 27th, 2012

🦋 Turn off your mind relax and float downstream

(this playlist is preceded aurally by the playing of "Harvest Home" on my fiddle. Its object is mainly to ascertain how many songs in a row my computer can randomize that will keep me interested. And yes, obscurely a manner of bragging about my music collection I guess. For whatever good that does. I'd be glad to put the playlist on a disc and send it to you if you'll pay me potsage, drop me a line. Or better yet you can listen to the first d tracks of the playlist at dtracks.com.)

Hello, you've reached Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese's classic tale of Italian-American manhood, starring Ray Liotta, Bob DeNiro, and Joe Pesci. Unfortunately we're all busting each other's <bleep> at the moment.

Hmm. 50 min... or depending on how many times you repeat it, potentially forever. Many songs on this list that I would like to play and/or sing. (I got the borderline crazy idea that "The L&N don't stop here anymore" lyrics would sound really great sung to the tune of "Nashville Blues". And "Ecstasy"? Yes, "Winter Love", yes...(Other songs that would fit in this general arrangement and key: "Who'll Rock the Cradle," "Sweet Baby's Arms." And on this very mix, "Things ain't what they used to be" is at least a closely related arrangement and key.))

posted evening of January 27th, 2012: 1 response
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Saturday, December 24th, 2011

🦋 Fiddle tunes

A vacation playlist. Composed over at cleek's place.

q. Marche au Camp, Laurie Hart (wow do I ever not listen to this record enough)
w. Down the Road, Flatt and Scruggs
e. Across the Universe, Robyn Hitchcock (Maxwell’s, November 04 — the linked version is the not-particularly-closest thing I could find)
r. Cumberland Blues, Fiddlin Doc Roberts (this shuffle is truly shining in the fiddle department)
t. Visions of Johanna, Chris Hintz
y. Dry Town Blues, Leake Co. Revelers
u. Cypress Grove, Vassar Clements
i. Ain’t That a Shame, Brian James (IRS Greatest Hits)
o. Ten Tiny Toes, One Baby Nose, Sol Ho’opi’i and his Novelty Quartette
p. Egyptian Cream, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians.

Really recommend checking out the Laurie Hart piece, that (Danse ce Soir) is one of those records that I forget all about for long periods and then hear a song from on shuffle and fall in love with all over.

After the shuffle I am going to go spend a while listening to Laurie Hart.

posted morning of December 24th, 2011: 3 responses
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Monday, November 22nd, 2010

🦋 (And, likely, no listeners)

Fans of the randomized mix will be happy to meet Scruss' pet robotic DJ. Every day a new autocast, randomly selected tunes from Scruss' vast library, with robotic introductions. Today's mix:

1. Ohio Town Saved From Killer Bees by Hungry Vampire Bats — Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo
2. Vorony - (Crows) — The Ukrainians
3. Forever Dudes — Still Flyin'
4. tcp d4 38 m3 irdial — The Conet Project
5. The Chameleon — Flanders and Swann
6. Farther Along — Elvis Presley
7. Head — Julian Cope
8. Josie and the Pussycats — Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly
9. Desperado — Langley Schools Music Project

posted morning of November 22nd, 2010: 1 response

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

🦋 Me, Elsewhere

Mellow out your end of the week with the TGW 201010 mix tape I posted at The Great Whatsit. Read up on your Canadian history with the Battle for Québec post I wrote at It is time for history. Generally have a good end of the week and weekend.

posted morning of October 28th, 2010: Respond

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

🦋 Wednesday Random Ten

Starting to really get my music library together -- I ripped a lot of old and new disks onto my computer this past week, and updated the file organization a little. Today's random 10 are a nice mellow mix.

1. "The $1 Store" sketch by The Vestibules -- a very worthwhile Canadian humor troupe. (from their Chest of Drawers 5.0 record.)
2. "Who by Fire", from New Skins for the Old Ceremony
3. "Where I Lead Me" by Steve Earle. Ellen and I went to a concert of his last weekend that I've been meaning to blog about (can't quite find the hook though) -- I bought his record Townes.
4. "Garden of Eden" by the New Riders. They have a lot of good songs besides "Panama Red" -- which for some reason is the only song I really think of when I hear their name.
5. "Devil's Radio" from Robyn's April 96 Bilbao show. Which contrary to my assertion at cleek's, definitely does move me in this incarnation.
6. "Night Fishin'" by Bobby Rush, from one of Apostropher's mix tapes. One of the things I discovered while organizing my library is that a slight plurality of my non-Robyn Hitchcock music is mix tapes from various blogging sources.
7. "A Day in the Life", Robyn Hitchcock performing on the Give it to the Thoth Boys tape. One of the best Beatles covers I've heard of his -- this comes close to being as great as the original. (Though it gets a little silly toward the end.)
8. "Pins and Needles in my Heart", the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
9. "Tubular Belgians in my Goldfield", Departure Lounge (featuring both Captain Keegan and Robyn!)
10. "Blue Lake", Bill Gessner

posted evening of July 28th, 2010: 1 response

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

🦋 Tuesday Random 10

(Hoping the posting of random playlists does not wear on my readers' patience...) Tonight's shuffle went very nicely indeed:

1. "Cryin' Holy Unto the Lord", The Charles River Valley Boys
2. "Dead Cats on the Line", Vassar Clements (This is originally by Tampa Red.)
3. Dialog of patter between Robyn and Grant Lee, about "the rubber thing". At the end of this interlude, Robyn counts in "1, 2, 3, 4--" to the next song they are going to play, and the playlist moves to
4. "The Dozen" by Big Bill Broonzy, in exactly the rhythm and tempo that Robyn had counted out. This is one of the most pleasant things that has happened to my ears all day.
5. "Señor Blues", Taj Mahal
6. "A Globe of Frogs" -- live performance, off of Give it to the Thoth Boys
7. "Beaver Slide Rag", Peg Leg Howell and his Gang
8. "The Truth", Kimberley Rew -- shades of "The Man With the Lightbulb Head"!
9. "Grooving on an Inner Plane"
10. "I'm Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes", the Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band with Mother Maybelle.

posted evening of June 15th, 2010: 4 responses

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

🦋 Hitchcock-heavy random 10

Nice music for listening to while translating (if that verb is not going too far). The rare kind of random selection of tunes that makes you think it ought to be saved as a playlist and distributed as a mix tape.

1. "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" performed in practice by me and John. I think this would be a really good song to cut a recording of. (edit:) We recorded a better take of Hollis Brown, a medley with "Alabama Bound" -- I have included this in the mix.
2. (edit:) I am adding a track here, though it was not in the shuffle, Ray Wylie Hubbard's version of "Choctaw Bingo".
3. Weird and entertaining dialog between Robyn Hitchcock and Grant Lee Phillips as part of their Elixirs & Remedies record, about getting Grant a bloody drink.
4. A guest appearance by Robyn on Departure Lounge's Win them back (which is almost exactly "Heart of Gold").
5. "I'm only you" from Storefront Hitchcock. Ahhh....
6. "All around the watertank" by Old and in the Way (song that belongs on the fiddle mix)
7. "(A Man's Got to Know His Limitations,) Briggs" from Obliteration Pie
8. "Wang Wang Blues" by Fletcher Henderson's orchestra.
9. Kim Rew, "The Radio Played 'Good Vibrations'"
10. "I Miss You More" by local band 13 Scotland Rd., who are totally deserving of wider attention -- check out their web site.
11. Venus 3!!! playing "Red Locust Frenzy".

Here are the files: Hitchcock-heavy random 10. Artists represented:

• Me and John (who still need a band name) (Update: We have a name! We are Mountain Station.)
• Robyn Hitchcock in various configurations
• Old and In The Way
• Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra
• Kimberley Rew (who is almost a various configuration of Robyn Hitchcock in my limited understanding)
• 13 Scotland Rd.
• (added) Ray Wiley Hubbard.

Nice!

(Realizing that the greatness of this mix tape depends on the listener not minding that almost all of the songs are by Robyn Hitchcock -- to me this seems more like a selling point than a hit against it.)

Most of the Hitchcock music represented here can be had by purchasing Olé Tarantula and Storefront Hitchcock (either of which purchases is easily justifiable on the merits).

I think a better take of "Hollis Brown" should happen this afternoon -- God willing, it will replace the one that's currently in the mix. (Done!) Another change that needs to be made to the pure random-10-ness of this mix is, "Choctaw Bingo" should be inserted between the first and second tracks.

The combination of this mix and the fiddle mix is making me think shuffling recordings of songs I am playing in with songs I am listening to, could be a really productive way to go about making music...

↻...done

posted evening of June 12th, 2010: Respond

Monday, May 31st, 2010

🦋 Monday random 10

This weekend I finally got around to moving all of my music files over to the (no longer) new computer... It's nice having all my music, or much of it, all in one place and easy to access. I'm working on a mix tape of songs with nice fiddle parts... In the mean time, here are ten consecutive songs in the shuffle...

1. "When You Awake" by Bob Dylan and The Band; and what's more the version from Before the Flood with its pretty fiddle part, which track is going right onto the mix tape!
2. "Lime House Blues" by Roy Smeck. Off a lovely mix tape from Petquality, "Pet's Guitar Picks".
3. "The Boys of Blue Hill" from one of my practice tapes. This was a surprise for me -- turns out since I'm storing my practice sessions under the "My Music" folder, Windows Media Player considers them part of its library. Cool!
4. "Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me" by Mississippi John Hurt.
5. "Lonesome Road Blues," by W. Lee O'Daniel and his Hillbilly Boys. The band name sort of says it all...
6. "Egyptian Cream" by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. Song I know vaguely but not too well, by the Egyptians!
7. "King Bolden's Song", by the Louis James String Band. More fodder for the fiddle mix tape...
8. "The Tennessee Stud," Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
9. "Chinese Water Python," Robyn Hitchcock.
10. "Simple Twist of Fate" by Jeff Tweedy.

Links below the fold, as I find them...

• Here is Django's performance of "Lime House Blues"
• the Tweedy performance of "Simple Twist" comes from Carnival Saloon's mix tape
• The Louis James String Band tune is on the record of the Mobile Strugglers and the Louis James String Band, which I recommend highly.
• "Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me" by Mississippi John Hurt. I don't think I have heard this song even once, which surprises me. It is a fun tune. An amazing number of amateur covers of this song can be found searching the web; some of them are very well done.
• "Lonesome Road Blues" is available on Volume IV of Western Swing Chronicles.
• "Egyptian Cream" is on Gotta Let This Hen Out; but the version I was listening to is from Give it to the Thoth Boys.
• "Tennessee Stud" is a Johnny Cash song; this version is from Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which should be in everybody's music collection. Some other nice versions (including Doc Watson's, who plays guitar in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band version) are on YouTube.
• a decent cover of "Chinese Water Python."

↻...done

posted morning of May 31st, 2010: 2 responses

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

🦋 At random

I found my iPod today! Have not seen it for months, and wondered occasionally on its whereabouts... Today it was sitting in plain sight on my desk. To celebrate, I shuffle:

• Pit of Souls, Robyn Hitchcock. Fantastic -- I don't really associate this style of music with Robyn but it is very nice for a change. Shades of Interstellar Overdrive!
• Djangology, the Hot Five. From Pet's picks. I can spend too much time on Hot Five listening for Grappelli's work and may miss some of the guitar. The violin solo about a minute ½ in is amazing though.
• Blue Moments, the Fletcher Henderson band.
• I'm Only You, Robyn Hitchcock. For you... (I like his play with pronouns, it reminds me of FaceBook a bit.) Live 2003 at the Great American Music Hall.
• Soldier's Drill, Rev. Gary Davis.
• The Clothes Line Saga, Dylan/The Band. Hypnotic. Wish this song was longer, it could easily have another verse and hold the mood.
• Morning Dew, The Grateful Dead.

  posted evening of November 7th, 2009: Respond

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

🦋 Random 10 while reading

Another difference between Inherent Vice and my standard category of novel-reading experience is, I like the reading a lot better if there is music playing in the background. Normally I have a hard time reading when I'm listening to music, here they seem to enhance one another. From my iTunes shuffle today:

1. It ain't nobody's business, Mississippi John Hurt
2. La-Do-Dada, Dale Hawkins
3. What Goes On, Robyn Hitchcock and Grant Lee Phillips -- this was a very nice coincidence because it came on just as I was starting to read the lyrics to the Spotted Dicks' new single "Long Trip Out" (which is on the radio in Doc's car), and suddenly I am singing them to the tune of "What Goes On", and they are fitting pretty well. Here is a verse of it:

   Long trip out, from the Mekong Delta...
   It's a last lost chance, when you need a friend,
   And you're flyin on out of
   Cam Ranh Bay at midnight,
   And you won't know how, to
   Get back home again.

   Then I spent a little while distracted, trying to find out more about "What Goes On" -- turns out it is a Velvet Underground song.
4. The Birds Were Singing, Carter Family
5. There'll be Joy, Joy, Joy, Carter Family -- the Carter Family threatening to distract from the novel, they do not quite work together.
6. Floater, Bob Dylan -- now this is more like it --
7. Till the End of the World, Ernie Tubb
8. Salty Dog Blues, John Hurt
9. Knockin on Heaven's Door, Dylan and the Band -- I was not actually participating in the music-listening/reading activity here, "Salty Dog" had reminded me that Lola needed to go out --
10. I Something You, Robyn Hitchcock.

...and later on in the shuffle, Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra plays the "What-cha-call-'em Blues" which go very nicely with the lyrics I am reading at this moment, to Carmine and the Cal-Zones' "Just the Lasagna". Conclusion, when there's music playing it's much easier to imagine Pynchon's lyrics being sung.

posted afternoon of August 16th, 2009: Respond
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